Kingdom Hearts is one of those franchises that taps into something primal in all of us. We all have our most base instincts. At our core, we all eat, we all reproduce, and we all want to team up with Tarzan to murder Clayton. If it’s not clear, that last one is the crux of Kingdom Hearts.
Just Dumb Enough To Work
Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG where you battle across many different Disney worlds, solving problems and ultimately failing to learn what Kingdom Hearts actually is. Armed with the power of the Keyblade, you’ll be tasked with taking out the emergent force of the Heartless and saving the various worlds. Along your way, you’ll be joined on your quest by Donald, Goofy, and a host of other Disney heroes, who provide a sense of camaraderie and not much else. This game came at a time in developer Square’s life where they were constantly experimenting with different genres. With recent titles like Parasite Eve and The Bouncer in their back pocket, why not try to make a Disney game where Donald’s a badass?
The Kingdom Hearts franchise is known for their long and convoluted storylines, but the first entry is pretty simple: You play as a boy named Sora who lives on a tiny little island with his friends Kairi and Riku. You spend your days laughing and collecting coconuts until one day, the shit hits the fan and your island is essentially consumed by a dark force, throwing the three of you off to distant planets. After waking up alone in a place called Traverse Town and meeting with almost the entire cast of Final Fantasy 7 (and Squall) for some reason, you learn that you’ve been chosen to wield the Keyblade, a weapon that the rest of the series will do their best to convince you isn’t actually that special. You then meet up with Donald and Goofy, form a Destiny Firesquad, and head off to all the different worlds in search of your lost friends. That’s the elevator pitch and if the idea of palling around with Goofy for a few dozen hours doesn’t appeal to you then may I perhaps suggest the possibility of you being a bad person?
A World Or Two Of Wonder
When one thinks of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, one thinks of the near dozen systems the series has been spread across. All those spent dollars. And for what, just to keep up with Sora’s costume changes? But also, the Disney worlds, those are important too. The different Disney worlds have never been as important as they are in the first entry in this series. In this title, every Disney villain you can imagine is conspiring against you and actively tries to keep your friends separated from you. They’re committed to the point of forming some sort of Legion of Evil and plotting in a dramatically shadowed room. So when you get to the worlds, not only will you engage in some Disney shenanigans with Aladdin and Genie, but almost every world is essential to you finding your missing friends. You’ll put up with the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. You’ll put up with Jack in Nightmare Before Christmas. You’ll even get the chance to put up with Pinnochio in the most puzzling layout for a whale’s insides I’ve ever seen. The Disney shenanigans are what really draw folk to this series and it is in prime form for its first entry.
The game is paced pretty well so you’ll always have something new to look forward to in each world. You can test your mettle at the Olympus Coliseum, going round after round against increasing opposition in pursuit of game-crushing loot. Later on, you’ll plop down in Atlantis and will have to contend with a completely new control scheme based around swimming. And you’ll have to look at Donald Duck as an octopus. Then right after that, you’ll be flying through Neverland, engaging in aerial combat for a whole one battle. There’s also a few minigames scattered about in the game just to add some variety. Each world has something to shake up the experience a little and it makes Kingdom Hearts a beautifully paced title. Pair that with the thought of interacting with your favorite Disney properties and you’ve got a winning recipe.
Like, Is Any Of This For Real? Or Not?
The gameplay of the first entry is pretty simple compared to the complexity that would define the series later on. You can hit things with the Keyblade, guard, roll, and use magic spells. There are a few other little twists like the summons where you bring Disney characters to help out in a fight, but combat is kept pretty grounded and punchy. Your basic combos feel meaty and are pretty quick to come out. This is all pretty standard stuff and it doesn’t get too ambitious for the duration. The Heartless come at you in a mess of forms and each enemy takes a different strategy to defeat. The bosses are also stand-out facets of this game. All the bosses bring something new to the table and some of them are a deceptively tough challenge for a game about hanging out with Pooh Bear. Even though the quality can vary a bit, there’s so many of them and some boss battles just feel so satisfying. Nothing feels better than kicking Jafar’s teeth in for five minutes while Gilbert Gottfried’s voice coos you into a tranquil state.
Kingdom Hearts also served as the introduction to space travel. In order to get from planet to planet, you have to traverse the vastness of space with your Gummi Ship. Though a cool idea in concept, it’s a mixed bag in execution. This was the franchise’s first crack at the Gummi ship formula and they get a few things right while getting pretty much everything else wrong. For the good, we have the amount of customization you can sink into your ship. You can put each piece on your ship like your own personal Lego warcraft. You can load it out with every weapon you can fit or you can make a ship that’s more likely to find treasure and rare loot. These choices are good things, although they aren’t at all required to complete the game. What is required is to actually use these ships and oh boy. Gummi Ship segments play out like a Star Fox session on tranquilizers. You float through space on a track and either shoot or avoid waves of enemies that spawn in. There’s nothing really challenging about these segments and they can end up dragging on with nothing much to do. The worst part is that you have to do these segments every time you want to travel to a new planet. Though one of the weakest aspects of the game, it doesn’t take up too much of your playthrough and you get a warp drive early into the game to cut down on flying.
A Charm All Its Own
For the completionists out there, Kingdom Hearts is pretty densely packed. Treasure chests are scattered throughout each world, some of them being stupidly obtuse to find. There’s a whole synthesis system in place where you must take your random drops and craft items and gear. You can find and return the 101 Dalmations back to their home in order to unlock a secret ending. There are even a handful of secret bosses that require the highest-level gear and sharpest skills to overcome. Very rarely are you not given a reason to return to worlds you’ve previously completed. Though it’s all optional, it gives more than enough replay value for your buck. And occasionally, you’ll discover things you never even knew about before. To this day, I’d wager not many people knowing about Tarzan’s vine slide
Graphically, the game looks pretty good. By today’s standards, the technical aspects of the title aren’t anything to make a fuss over. Though animation is pretty expressive, everything else is pretty standard and there’s a marked decrease in quality from cutscene to gameplay. However, the artistic design of the game carries it. Everything, from the design of the Heartless to the color scheme of Goofy’s outfit, sells this game as a believable fusion of the cartooney and the realistic. Original characters can stand next to Maleficent and not look out of place. All these designs look like they belong together. The soundtrack here is also a standout achievement. Thanks to Yoko Shimumura’s experience in the field, Kingdom Hearts has a multifaceted soundtrack that can swing from light and bouncy to sinister and jagged in a moment. The composition of these tunes immediately worms its way into your ears and hearing classic themes recreated using the game’s soundscape is a treat.
They Do Talk About Darkness A Lot Though
There’s a case to be made regarding nostalgia and its role in Kingdom Hearts’ success. How the brand recognition of Disney paved the way for this series to really blossom into its own thing. However, there’s also the fact that Kingdom Hearts is just a good video game on its own merit. What could have easily been a quick cash grab was obviously given an ample amount of time and love. The only thing better than stomping through Halloween Town with Jack Skellington is having fun doing it. And in the end, Kingdom Hearts more than provides that fun experience along with the Disney shenanigans.
If you’re feeling up to bartering with Huey, Dewey, and Louie over item prices, you can find the game here in the PS4 collection re-release. But really, you have options. There have been so many re-releases over the years that you can play Kingdom Hearts on almost every Sony console out there.